Philippines President calls for a moratorium on new casino venues

The Philippines has numerous casinos and highly exclusive slot machine VIP clubs, located in its major cities. However Rodrigo Duterte, the current Philippine President has called for a moratorium on new casinos in the country to halt the further growth of the market as it is already inundated with casinos.

Going forward no new casinos will get approval in the Philippines owing to the order of a moratorium on the new venues. Though some of the merchant princes in the country somehow managed to make a niche for themselves in the sector prior to the release of the new order, Duterte intends to halt the further expansion of an already crowded market.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation operate most of the casinos and slot machine clubs in the Philippines.

The Chairwoman of (PAGCOR), Andrea Domingo explained: “The President told me on Jan. 11 to freeze (the processing of) new casinos because there are just too many now.” She further detailed that the regulatory body will stop issuing licenses for casinos for a while until the market can take in new entrants again.”

Voicing her approval of Duterte’s decision, Domingo said she also goes with his opinion, as there is already a proliferation of land-based casinos in the country.

There are several casino projects that barely managed to get in the market before the announcement, such as Gokongwei’s, set to open in Cebu’s South Road Properties in 2022, or Villar’s project for Dasmarinas, Cavite.